ONE of the biggest fridge mountains in Europe is proving to be a cool development for job creation in Wales.

ONE of the biggest fridge mountains in Europe is proving to be a cool development for job creation in Wales.

An innovative fridge recycling centre in Newport is set to double its capacity with the creation of at least 25 jobs.

This time last year, more than 35,000 unwanted fridges and freezers were waiting to be recycled at Newport dock, the first in Britain to be dedicated to the process.

Sims Recycling Solutions spotted the potential of the site to relieve the burden on local authorities faced with the difficult task of safely recycling refrigerators.

Over the past year, the company has processed around 300,000 fridges from local authority waste management teams from across the UK.

It now plans to open a new plant in October.

The Newport site could easily be described as a fridge mountain, but it has helped to lessen the environmental impact of appliances being dumped indiscriminately.

"The fridge mountain has been taken away from local authorities across the UK," said Paul Wake, manager of the site at Alexandra Dock.

A new rail freight facility at North Dock, supported by Welsh Assembly Government funding, will support the operation by increasing the capacity of rail freight.

Mr Wake said orders and contracts were already in place for use of the second recycling facility in advance of its expected opening in October.

The company confirmed that a #1.72m Freight Facilities Grant, awarded to Sims Group UK Ltd and Associated British Ports (ABP), owner and operator of the Port of Newport, would support the development of the second plant.

The facility will be fully operational next year and will handle 600,000 tonnes of scrap metal, removing nearly 52,174 lorry trips from road, covering almost seven million road miles over 10 years.

Andrew Davies, Minister for Economic Development and Transport, said the development would help to meet the he UK Government's target of increasing by 80% the amount of freight moved by rail.

The Newport centre opened in July 2002 as Europe's most modern "End of Life Fridge Plant".

Councils and environmentalists welcomed its contribution to reducing the huge number of unwanted fridges that cannot be disposed of in landfill sites following an EU directive.

Stephen Davison, head of public protection and environmental services at Newport City Council, said the new plant was benefiting the area by creating jobs and supporting a cleaner, greener environment.

Simsmetal, part of the Sims group, received a development grant after a visit in 2001 by First Minister Rhodri Morgan to its headquarters in Australia.

With its proposed expansion, the Newport centre will become the largest of its kind in Europe.

The Sims group is an international metal recycling, resource recovery and industrial services company, with operations spread throughout the UK, Australasia, North America and Asia.

Sims Recycling Solutions, a division of Sims UK, was developed following European environmental legislation that compels manufacturers to take financial responsibility for "end of life" products.

A EUROPEAN Union directive demands that CFC gases - the chemicals blamed for destroying the ozone layer - must be removed from fridges before they are recycled.

More than 2.5 million fridges were sent from the UK to developing countries, or simply buried underground, before the launch of plants like the Sims site in Newport.

Its pioneering technology, developed in Australia, is helping to reduce the burden on local authorities of a fridge mountain that cost the taxpayer as much as #40m.

The CFCs contained in the foam insulation of an average fridge amounts to about 300 grammes.

Before the arrival of Australian company Sims, the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that about 780,000 fridges and freezers were being replaced in Australia every year - a similar plant in Wales would potentially avoid about 234 tonnes of CFCs being emitted annually.